[Pat Brennan]

Hi Orla,

What you’ve outlined here about the adverse effects of climate change in your locality are worryingly reflected across the country from other experiences shared on this forum. The reality is uncharacteristic and/or extreme weather conditions are now common place in Ireland and globally.

The actions you’ve outlined here are practical and achievable. The procurement of polly tunnels is a novel one and will certainly give you much greater scope for homegrown produce. The school’s Green Team is going great work too, around composting and recycling and interesting to hear that from their research, the teachers are doing less well then the students. BTW, we are always learning, I didn’t realise either that wet paper cannot be recycled…

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Grace,

I agree, Immersive Reader can be an immensely powerful tool for promoting greater accessibility to text for students who have difficulties with reading and language but again as you suggested when used appropriately and not as a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution or panacea for all literacy challenges our students encounter. However, what it does do is enable all text to be accessible to all students, particularly EAL students, and those with visual impairments and dyslexia as mooted. Functionality like the ability to adjust text size and spacing, break words into syllables and the talk to text features provide a scaffold for these students and as a result directly improves student confidence and increases their opportunities to work independently.

In addition to Immersive Reader, Dictate is a great tool in MS 365, particularly for students who struggle with keyboard input.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Sinéad,

Welcome to the course. I would agree wholeheartedly that a perception exists out there that AT is intrinsically connected t0 educational psychologist’s recommendations and what the SENO is happy to sanction, and such a narrow/limited view of AT inhibits real embedding of a host of digital technologies (Low, medium and high) that are extremely effective in the SET classroom and your example of using tools like Book Creator and Adobe Spark in the writing process and for creative writing demonstrates this. Not AT specifically but nonetheless tools that can scaffold and support the student with in-built functionality like text-to-speech, spell checkers, prompts, dictation and more.  Allowing students to focus on the content rather than the mechanics of getting their ideas down on paper. The free (And brilliant) Immersive Reader from Microsoft is another powerful example of such tools, covered in detail in the next module…

 

 

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Jacqueline,

Great to hear that you found the course beneficial and you have a number new tools and apps to bring back to the classroom in September. I agree the inbuilt accessibility features in both Windows and iOS are significant supports for student’s struggling with literacy and there’s the added bonus for teachers/schools already using MS 365.  MS’s suite of learning tools like  Immersive Reader. Dictate, Reading Progress that integrate seamlessly across the the 365 apps offering some really powerful AT tools for the SET classroom. SET classroom.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Tara,
Thanks for sharing your SETT plan to support a child with dyslexia which utilises a good mix of low, medium, and high tech AT tools. Good use of Lens, Immersive Reader and Dictate here to support and scaffold the summarising task. I particularly like the idea of using Dictate to record the child’s responses and then listening back to self-evaluate. I’m also drawn to your reference to audio books in the plan, a format sometimes overlooked and a personal favourite of mine. When I worked in SET, I used audiobooks extensively as I found them in some cases liberating as they helped separate the narrative from the physical text, which invariably held negative connotations for students with significant reading difficulties.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Kevin,

I agree, Google Classroom is an extremely powerful learning management tool, for many teachers their first experience of Classroom was exclusively as a tool for remote teaching in Covid times where it was extremely effective. However, it can do much more and as you’ve mooted can be just as useful when used to compliment face-to-face lessons or as part of a blended offering. I note too your point about being able t0 differentiate work on a group-by-group basis rather than just individually making it a really efficient and time-saving tool for this purpose.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Jacqueline,

Thanks for sharing your sample SETT plan, I’ve not had the experience of teaching a student who is pre/non verbal having been in SET in a senior mainstream but can imagine it can be challenging when you are dependent gestures and facial expressions to communicate. Also thanks for sharing the specialist Proloquo app, I’d not heard of it before but sounds like an extremely powerful tool for augmentative and alternative communication. I’ve taken the liberty of adding a link to it here for other participants who maybe interested in discovering more.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Eamonn.

I agree Assistive technology is becoming increasingly more embedded in daily learning experiences of students and when used appropriately increases a student’s educational opportunities and social interaction. It also supports a student’s participation in learning experiences in the least restrictive environment. However, as you have alluded to AT only has the power to be effective/transformative for the child if it is deployed and used in a meaningful way. Teachers being aware of the purpose and confident in its use/application are key to effective pedagogically-led use.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Helen,

Thanks for sharing such a comprehensive sample plan which uses a number of digital tools that enable the student in question to focus on content (and his creativity) rather then the mechanics of writing. That’s really what assistive technology is all about enabling students to work at their own pace and experience success regularly with the scaffold provided.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Hilary,

Thanks for sharing  Helperbird and your experience using it, an app I wasn’t aware of . From first impressions online, it’s looks an extremely powerful literacy tool with a myriad of uses in the SET classroom.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Hilary,

I agree pin pointing which AT will be a right fit for a child is the difficult part and tight budgets make it essential that the correct choice is made when purchasing AT’s. However, as you point out there are so many different options out there and the needs of individual children are so unique. This is what makes it such a minefield so consulting the SSF, liaising with past teachers and using the recommendation in reports from educational phycologists, OTs etc, is the most effective and wholistic way to approach it. Having a knowledge of as many different options as possible will allow you to make more informed decisions.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Julie,

Great to hear you are finding the course useful and that you are discovering new tools and functionality in MS365 that you hitherto weren’t aware of. personally I think where Teams really comes into its own is as a one-stop overarching collaboration and communication platform for staff, in my opinion it’s the best tool out there for such professional networks, providing all the tools required in one easy to access place. I do agree however that it can be tricky to navigate (Particularly for younger students) but it’s important to remember that Teams was primarily designed for communication and collaboration in the workplace. I also agree that the chat facility can be distracting but this can be switched off by the school admin.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Tara,

I agree, the SETT framework is practical as it can be used as you’ve outlined, collectively to inform the choice of AT for the individual child, so the technology/learning environment is matched (as much as possible) to the needs of the student making interventions bespoke. As you point out with low-tech tools (and possibly some of the medium-tech tools), they will already be available so will just need to be put place where the more high-tech tools may need to be sourced and in some cases require a recommendation from a specialist so their acquisition is funded.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Michelle,

Thanks for sharing both your Sway and Form and I agree both tools are powerful learning tools when used appropriately with a class.  Forms is an extremely powerful tool for assessment, both AfL and AoL and its reporting and tacking facilities make keeping tabs on progress easy and more efficient. As for Sway I see it as a powerful yet simple to use tool for digital storytelling, picture or photo stories but also great for illustrated narratives. Often teachers (particularly at the senior end of the school) think that when they’ve access to the full 365 suite, PowerPoint should be the tool of choice but particularly with storytelling, I believe, less is more and the simplicity of Sway lets students focus on their content instead of getting distracted by the advanced functionality/bells and whistles of PowerPoint.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Jacqueline,

I agree, Immersive reader can be a very powerful literacy tool when used in SET. It enables all work to be accessible to all students and provides a scaffolding approach to learning. As you’ve mooted, functionality like the ability to adjust text size and spacing, break words into syllables and the talk to text features are the key parts of this scaffold. When working with students with SEN, MS365 can be used to tailor bespoke supports using these free tools. These are in constant development too and improving all the time. The addition of Learning Accelerators in recent years adds to the toolkit and demonstrates Microsoft commitment to developing and enhancing their suite of AT tools.

[Author]

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